Borough in London, England
Richmond upon Thames
A Tudor palace, a rugby cathedral, a UNESCO garden and a deer park older than Parliament's Royal Parks rulebook: Richmond upon Thames packs in a lot of royal leftovers.
Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 195,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, Richmond Park, Twickenham Stadium
- What locals are called
- Richmonders
- Famous people
- Noël Coward, Alexander Pope, Horace Walpole, Virginia Woolf
- Football clubs
- Hampton & Richmond Borough
About Richmond upon Thames
The town that was renamed by a king
Richmond wasn't always Richmond. The riverside royal manor was called Sheen until Henry VII rebuilt its palace after a fire and renamed it in 1501, after his earlier title, Earl of Richmond in Yorkshire. A Yorkshire name on the Thames is a very Tudor piece of branding. The palace is long gone, but its gatehouse survives near Richmond Green. Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace in 1603, which is why the green still feels like a royal front lawn. The town also gave London a famous snack. Maids of Honour, small curd tarts, are tied by local legend to Henry VIII and the ladies of the palace, and they're still baked here.
Royal gardens, royal deer and a very big vine
Kew Gardens began in 1759 under Princess Augusta and grew into the world's most celebrated botanical garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. Its Temperate House is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse anywhere. The 1762 Pagoda, designed by William Chambers, got 80 gilded dragons back in 2018. Richmond Park was enclosed by Charles I in 1637 as a hunting ground, and the walls went up despite local grumbling. Hundreds of red and fallow deer still roam it, and the view from Richmond Hill, painted by Turner among others, is protected by law. Upriver, Hampton Court Palace was Henry VIII's showpiece. Its maze is a visitor favourite, and its Great Vine, planted in 1768, is famous as one of the largest grape vines in the world.
Why rugby fans call a car park a cathedral
Twickenham Stadium was built on a former market garden, nicknamed the Cabbage Patch, bought by the Rugby Football Union in 1907. The first international there came in 1910, when England played Wales. Today it holds around 82,000 and is the home of English rugby. The borough's rugby roots go deeper. Richmond FC was founded in 1861, making it one of the oldest clubs in the game, and Harlequins play at the Stoop nearby. The World Rugby Museum at Twickenham is a fine place to see old shirts and the history of the sport. Football takes a back seat, though Hampton & Richmond Borough, the Beavers, fly the flag.
Poets, novelists and a Gothic fantasy
Alexander Pope settled in Twickenham in 1719 and built a famous grotto under his road to reach his garden. Horace Walpole, the son of a prime minister, turned Strawberry Hill into a Gothic Revival fantasy in the 18th century. Turner designed a house at Twickenham, Sandycombe Lodge, for himself and his father. In 1917 Virginia and Leonard Woolf bought a hand printing press and set it up at Hogarth House in Richmond. The Hogarth Press went on to publish T. S. Eliot and Woolf's own novels. Noël Coward was born in Teddington in 1899, and Teddington Studios later produced generations of British television.
From the Crawdaddy to the Boat Race
In 1963 the Rolling Stones played at the Crawdaddy Club at Richmond's Station Hotel, where their rhythm and blues reputation took off. Nearby, Eel Pie Island at Twickenham was a hub for 1960s British blues, with Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton among those who played there. The river still sets the rhythm of local life. Teddington Lock marks the end of the tidal Thames, and the Boat Race finishes at Mortlake. Richmond Bridge, finished in 1777, is the oldest surviving Thames bridge in London. And at Barnes, the London Wetland Centre has turned old reservoirs into a haven for wildfowl, a few miles from Hyde Park Corner.